EFJ president: It is worrying that the government is renewing this bad practice with a new wave of prosecution against freelance journalists”

Shchyrako­va, was fined 4 620 000 Belaru­sian rubles (around 225 EUR) by the Homiel Dis­trict Court for break­ing Arti­cle 22.9 of Belaru­sian Code on Admin­is­tra­tive Offens­es which for­bids free­lance jour­nal­ists in the coun­try from work­ing with for­eign media out­lets.

With the sup­port of BAJ, Shchyrako­va will make an appeal against the court rul­ing. Last year, the BAJ has sent a let­ter of appeal to the Pres­i­den­tial Admin­is­tra­tion of Belarus and Pres­i­dent Alexan­der Lukashenko promised to look into the issue.

Mogens Blich­er Bjer­regård, EFJ pres­i­dent says, “It is wor­ry­ing that the gov­ern­ment is renew­ing this bad prac­tice with a new wave of pros­e­cu­tion against free­lance jour­nal­ists in the coun­try.”

Shchyrako­va is not the first vic­tim of this ridicu­lous law. In 2015, Belarus has issued 28 fines to jour­nal­ists based on Arti­cle 22.9. This is the sec­ond time Shchyrako­va was fined under this law.

The EFJ togeth­er with BAJ have been lob­by­ing for sev­er­al years for the removal of Arti­cle 22.9 argu­ing that it vio­lat­ed the fun­da­men­tal rights of jour­nal­ists to free­dom of expres­sion.